Preparing for a Fixer Upper
The New York Times had an excellent article this past Sunday regarding homeowners buying fixer uppers. Not necessarily because they want to, but because it’s what they can afford in order to enter the real estate market.
Unfortunately I think the HGTV culture leads lots of people to believe that home renovations are much easier than they really are, and that the renovations cost less than they really do. Remember, when you watch an HGTV do-it-yourself renovation show, they typically are only quoting the materials and are not taking into account the cost of the laborers doing the actual work. As far as you and I are concerned, the plumber or electrician isn’t really going to work for us for free.
So if you are in the market for a true fixer upper, here are some things to think about…
1. Is the house livable? Are you going to be able to stay there while you do the renovations or do you need to have other accomodations? I have a client that recently closed on a property and they live in about one-third of the house while they fix up the remaining two-thirds. It works fine for them, but I know it would not work well for others. You have to figure out your comfort level.
2. Do you have the cash available to get the necessary work done? Your agent and a general contractor should be able to give you rough estimates of what the renovations will cost. Can you do all of the work immediately or will it need to be staggered over several months or years?
3. If you have a partner, is your relationship a strong one? Major renovations that you personally undertake can be very stressful. They usually take more money and time than expected, and you may not have the same ideas as your partner. My husband and I once took on a porch renovation project that he and his dad thought they could do in a week. Three months of continuous evening and weekend work later, our neighbors were remarking they were surprised we were still married! Make sure your partnership can endure this type of stress before embarking.
Fixer uppers really aren’t for everyone, but if you’re willing and able to put in the work, you may be able to get the home of your dreams that would otherwise be out of reach. It might just take a few months or years to actually turn it into the home of your dreams.
Shane and I just finished restoring the front of our house (planned), putting on a new roof (unplanned), and renovating the kitchen (planned).
We were generally good about making decisions together, but had some problems around quality of materials, ’cause the prices varied so much. Laminate or granite or quartz? High or medium grade lumber? Ceramic or glass tile?
We’re pleased with the decisions we made, but there were some tense moments over the couple of months the projects took. (And some took place in public, at the point of decision-making, so it could feel embarrassing too.)
A note to your readers: if you have the money and you need some work done on your house, now is an excellent time to do it because many contractors and tradespeople have been losing work because of the economic downturn. We got our roof done for half of what we’d been quoted last year, which is why we went ahead and did it. The cost of materials is up quite a bit, but with home improvement contracts being broken right and left, folks are really looking for work.
(And get your permits! It’s the right thing to do.)
Thanks for the comments Julie. We’re having a bunch of work done this summer too, although we aren’t really getting any good deals. For some reason, roofers seem to be doing pretty well. At least the ones we talked to. There are a handful of people that will work on slate, so that really limits our options.